“Whose world is this? (The world is yours, the world is yours) It's mine, it's mine, it's mine Whose world is this? It's yours It's mine, it's mine, it's mine Whose world is this? (The world is yours, the world is yours) It's mine, it's mine, it's mine Whose world is this?” - Nas "The World is Yours"
When Nas rapped those words on the 1994 album “Illmatic” he was reportedly making a reference to Scarface, but it just as easily could have been to Minnesota Twins left fielder Eddie Rosario.
Rosario came into Sunday’s game hitting a tremendous .310/.347/.531 — all three bettering his very, very solid 2017 marks — but he left no stone unturned as he drilled three home runs, including the walk-off blast in the ninth, in a 7-5 win over the Cleveland Indians.
The win brought the Twins to within 3.5 games of first-place Cleveland, and capped a 3-1 series win over the visiting Indians before Monday’s day off. Monday is also the beginning of the MLB Draft, so Twins officials will still be plenty busy at Target Field making their first two picks.
Both staters — Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson and Cleveland’s Mike Clevinger — pitched reasonably well, but were long gone when the final salvo was fired in this one.
Here’s what we saw from our vantage point:
Rosario is a bad, bad man…
Rosario’s three home runs — one apiece against Clevinger, Tyler Olson and closer Cody Allen — pushed his season line to an incredible .317/.352/.573. Rosario became the eighth player to hit three home runs in a game in Twins history, and he did so for the second time in his career.
According to the game notes, Rosario is hitting a sizzling .378 since May 1, and also extended his hitting streak to nine games. Manager Paul Molitor calls him a “don’t-blink” player, and right now he’s must-see TV.
….but seriously, so is Edwin Encarnacion
He’s never played for Pittsburgh but he sure fancies himself a pirate as he rounds the bases following a home run with his right arm lifted up. He did so twice in this one, getting the team on the board by breaking up Gibson’s perfect game/no-hitter/shutout with one swing in the fifth inning, and then he put the Indians up 4-3 an inning later on a 97 mph fastball from Ryan Pressly.
After a slow start to the season, Encarnacion is starting to round into form. He’s hitting .246/.317/.517, which is something the Twins do not care to see — another hot Indians hitter. Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez were the two most valuable players by Fangraphs’ WAR in May, and they’re separated by Michael Brantley — who is hitting .323/.369/.549 and homered in this one — in the batting order.
The remaining 14 battles between these teams should be very, very good.
Neither starter was terrific, but both were solid
Clevinger’s line looked a lot better before Dozier chased him with a solo home run in the seventh inning, tying the game at four apiece. The righty finished six-plus innings with three strikeouts, three walks, four earned runs and seven hits allowed, though the two homers allowed — Rosario and Dozier — certainly drag the line down a bit.
Still, for a guy down the line in a solid Indians rotation, he’s a really, really nice piece to have on the back end. He’ll look to bounce back next time out against the Tigers at Comerica Park this weekend.
Gibson, meanwhile, built off a strong start last time out in Kansas City by tossing four perfect innings to start things out. He ran into a little trouble in the fifth with the homer to Encarnacion, followed by a single from Jason Kipnis, but he got Yan Gomes to ground into a double play on his way to finishing the inning with a 3-1 lead.
Gibson gave up a one-out walk to Lindor, who came around to score on Encarnacion’s second homer of the day — off Pressly, but Lindor was Gibson’s responsibility — to close the book after 5.2 innings of work.
Gibson reached 95 mph with both his fastballs, and had 11 swinging strikes on the day — five on the slider (25 percent), four on the two-seam fastball (14.3 percent) and two on the four-seamer (6.5 percent).
After such a strong start to the month, the Twins bullpen showed a few cracks in the foundation
Pressly allowed two runs on a hit — the Encarnacion homer — and a walk, and didn’t record an out. Addison Reed allowed a home run to Brantley which gave back the 5-4 lead the Twins had taken on Rosario’s second homer of the day — a half-inning earlier — and now has allowed bombs in back-to-back outings for just the second time in his career (April 28-29 last year).
The real question — which was posed in this space on Saturday — was if Pressly really needed to get an inning of work in a six-run game in the third game of the series. Pressly is fifth among 181 relievers — heading into Sunday, that is — with 30 appearances, and Reed ranks 27th with 28.2 innings pitched.
Managing their workload is going to be a balancing act for Molitor, though fortunately, Trevor Hildenberger, Zach Duke and Matt Magill have done a pretty good job and could see higher-leverage work, too.
Speaking of bullpens, Cleveland’s doesn’t even remotely resemble what we’ve seen in recent seasons
The Indians came into Sunday with a collective 5.92 bullpen ERA, having already churned out former Twin Matt Belisle — he’s at Triple-A after re-signing on a minor-league deal — and the bunch scarcely resembles the power group that gave the Twins fits in recent years.
Andrew Miller is battling knee issues, Bryan Shaw is in Colorado, Zach McAllister has an ERA of over 6.00 and Allen has been good, but he gave up the home run to Rosario to end this one.
In this game, the Indians used former Twins castoff Neil Ramirez and 36-year-old street free agent Oliver Perez to try to keep the game close. To be fair, it worked….until Allen came in.
Baseball is weird.
Dozier looks locked in again
It wasn’t just the homer in the seventh that chased Clevinger, but even more so the walk in the ninth that led to the Rosario homer. Dozier saw nine pitches from Allen, and after falling behind 1-2 fouled off three fastballs before taking one low to open the inning with a free pass.
Getting Dozier back in tune will help smooth out the rough patches seen lately as Eduardo Escobar, Morrison and Max Kepler have all seen lulls at different points this season.
Ryan LaMarre quietly had a terrific game
He finished 3-for-4 and played some good defense in center, and not only that, but he followed up his first career extra-base hit by doubling up with two in this one. He’s now hitting .310/.355/.362 on the season, which is about all that can be asked of a fourth outfielder pressed into action.
It’s not ideal that your fourth outfielder has to play daily at this point, but at least he’s picking up steam at the right time.
Ehire Adrianza’s pinch running did not go too well
Adrianza was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on a LaMarre double — he stumbled, but would have been out by a wide margin either way — and by Statcast’s sprint speed metric is averaging just 26.8 feet per second.
Grossman, on the other hand, is averaging 27.8 feet per second, tied with Xander Bogaerts and Jason Heyward. The only players on the list Adrianza is faster than are Miguel Sano (26.2), Mitch Garver (26), Jason Castro (25.9), Joe Mauer (25.8) and Bobby Wilson (23.6).
Bonus Rosario #content
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Notes
- The Twins hold pick Nos. 20 and 59 on Monday night as the MLB Draft gets underway. They traded pick No. 74 to the San Diego Padres in the Phil Hughes deal, and the next pick (No. 75) by the St. Louis Cardinals is a compensation pick for the Lance Lynn signing. The Twins, as a result, forfeited their third-round pick.
- The Twins improved to 14-13 at home and 4-12 in one-run games this season.
- Escobar hit his 20th double of the season in the win, and as of this writing trails only Jose Abreu (21) for the MLB lead in two-baggers.
- Cleveland was the first MLB team to have five players with double-digit homers after Brantley hit his 10th in the eighth inning.
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